Hartford Whalers What If Reverse Retro Series

[johne9109]

So I recently got inspired to do a series of what if series of Reverse Retro jerseys if the Hartford Whalers were still around today. I guess they technically be done by the Carolina Hurricanes if the program were to continue, but it seems like they're moving away from their Whalers experiment for the most part. Anyway moving onto the first design.

 

 

For the first two designs I based them of of the Inaugural WHA uniforms of the New England Whalers. The team wore these when they won the Avco Cup and are a very different and unique look from their NHL days. I reversed the uniforms by using the teams NHL colors of green and blue. 

[johne9109]

Next up is the later era uniforms for the New England Whalers; specifically 1977 as that was when the Howes signed with the team. Again I swapped the darker green and yellow for their NHL era green and blue

 

[VampyrRabbit]

If the Whalers were still around, they probably wouldn't have used the original roundel logo as Boston demanded that they change their name from the New England Whalers as part of being accepted into the NHL. They would have used the classic Hartford Whalers logo instead if throwing back to their WHA days, and if there ever was a logo that was too good not to use, it's the Hartford Whalers logo.

[johne9109]

8 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

If the Whalers were still around, they probably wouldn't have used the original roundel logo as Boston demanded that they change their name from the New England Whalers as part of being accepted into the NHL. They would have used the classic Hartford Whalers logo instead if throwing back to their WHA days, and if there ever was a logo that was too good not to use, it's the Hartford Whalers logo.

This is just the first two sets. Don't worry the NHL era Whalers logo is coming. Also, as a Reverse Retro I can see the original logo being used as it's just a limited run jersey. Would it be the first choice; probably not, but I could seeing it being used if Reverse Retro (or a similar program) went on for multiple years. I also think the second iteration of the NE Whalers look is a great design in and of itself; it just gets rightfully overshadowed by their NHL rebrand. I think if it was brought back for a retro program it would be pretty accepted (especially by collectors). I'd love to see it

[johne9109]

Now we get the Hartford Whalers look. This time colored with the New England Whalers colors of green and yellow. Can't say I like it more than the green and blue, but it'd be cool for a small run

 

[pHiL Kizer]

Being from Connecticut, thank you...

 

[johne9109]

 

6 hours ago, pHiL Kizer said:

Being from Connecticut, thank you...

 

You're Welcome; but wait there's more!

 

 

This is the one that would make the most sense IMO. A literal reverse of the Whalers NHL jersey. I see quite a few people swap the Whalers into a blue jersey and it just doesn't work for me, but I think if the Whalers were still aorund this would've been their 1st Reverse Retro.

 

[johne9109]

Final entry is the Whalers redesigned uniform (which never should've happened) this time it is swapped from blue back to green and then also to the tertiary silver.  I could've also taken this design and swapped it to the WHA and original shades of green and blue but they didn't work well with the silver so I just kept it with the colors that were originally apart of that uniform